tummy pipe??

Kids always say the darnest things. They say it sincerely. They ask you serious stuffs. They sit and think about what you say. And all these without them knowing that it sometimes get hilarious just hearing the things they say.

Here's what happened recently.

Eryn was staring at mummy using a pencil eyeliner to draw on mummy's eye lids.

Eryn :    Mummy, this one draw on people one ar?
Mummy : draw what on people?
Eryn :    Neeehhh.... why you use pencil to draw on yourself? Pencil is for drawing
               on paper lah.

Brendan about to take his bath yesterday morning.

Brendan : Mummy, must wash my pyjama or not?
Mummy : Yes, must wash your pyjama
Brendan : Which one? Shirt or pants?
Mummy : both lah...
Brendan : then you must put "s"
Mummy : What ass?
Brendan : You must say Pyjamasssssssss and not pyjama. Must got "s".

It's so hard getting the kids to sit down and eat properly and at times, they take such a loooong time to finish their food! One particular night, we were talking about the importance of finishing their meals.

Mummy : You have to learn how to eat yourself and finish all your food.
                  Mummy have to spend time to cook for you all. Not many
                  people are lucky to have nutritious home cooked food you know.
Eryn :    Ya, I know, but mummy, my mouth so small. Your mouth bigger that's
                 why can finish faster mah. So you feed me can?
Mummy : Are you still a baby? No, right? When you were a baby, I fed you cos
                   you didn't know how to eat on your own yet.
Brendan : Mei-mei, you know baby got tummy pipe.
Eryn :    What tummy pipe?
Brendan : We all got 'du-chi' (navel). Why baby one is tummy pipe?
Mummy : I don't know what tummy pipe you are talking about.
Brendan : neh.... the baby inside tummy got one long, long pipe.
Mummy : Oh! That is called the umbilical cord. It's for the food to be transfered
                   from the mummy to the baby.
Eryn : Why? Baby got no mouth meh?
Brendan : How the food go through the ambicolor cord?
Mummy : It's UM-BER-LEE-CAL-CORRRRD
Brendan : So difficult to say. Tummy pipe easier.

And so, the conversation continues into the night. And both asking me tons of questions at the same time and then started arguing, insisting on me answering their questions first!! And I almost lose my patience trying to explain.

Food excursion (part 3, final part)

I guess I just have to include this in as this is the first time I ate something different.

My brother-in-law took us to this lovely restaurant famous for its steamed fish and kway teow dish. We went round and round in circles just looking for the place. He had to call a friend to ask for the location but was given the wrong road. Just as we were about to give up, we passed by this place at the lane next to where we were supposed to go. Luckily my sister spotted it as we were passing by. It's located on the ground floor of two cramped shoplots.

Parking was a little difficult as it was also drizzling. The place was packed with people and we had to wait for about 10 minutes before we had a table. We order three simple dishes for our group fo 4 adults and 3 children.

Steamed fish with big pieces of kway teow, cut and sprinkled with some fried garlic. This is something special for us and it's quite delicious.

Fish mee hoon claypot soup. Cooked with lots of serai (lemongrass). The dish smells good and the fish is very fresh. The kids love this very much. They had second helping too.

Stir-fried bittergourd and roast pork.

Restaurant details :

Wang Chau Jun

Address : 73, Jalan Rangoon  (it's a one way street, and the restaurant is on your left)

Business hours : 8am – 2.30 pm, closed on Tuesday
Contact number : 012-5559046 & 012-4709549

Food excursion (part 2)

As mentioned in my previous post, going to Penang is all about food. My sis stays in Penang and therefore, we go there at least once a year.

Having a seafood dinner at our usual haunt in Teluk Kumbar. So, I won't be writing about our lovely dinner meal. You can read some of our seafood experience in our older posts here and here.

My sis loves to tapao (pack) back for us goodies such as ice-kacang, cendol, rojak, etc.. I was yearning for the muar chee this round, but didn't manage to find any. I've also not tried the famous Nasi Kandar in Penang which my sister claims to be nice and cheap compared to KL.

Here's some of the hawker food we tried this round. Makes me hungry just looking at the photos.

Hubby insisted on going for the char kway teow at Macalister Road after our tapao-ed lunch meal of  assam laksa. Didn't take a picture of this cos we've been eating this all the time whenever we are in Penang. The shop is located somewhere near Sunshine Square.

Anyway, topped with huge prawns and crab meat, the char kway teow smell quite fragrant, which I believe could be due to the smell of peanut oil. However, I find this too oily for my liking. Waiting time : 25 minutes

DH insisted that we must try the fried orhh kueh (or is it char kway kak?) at the same kway teow stall in Macalister Road. We had to wait. I don't really fancy this. Something seems to be missing in this. I guess it's the chai-poh or maybe the texture of the kueh. Waiting time : another 10 minutes after our char kway teow.

One of my favourite! Duck thigh mee suah herbal soup at Super Tanker hawker centre.

This has to be one of the best char orh chien (fried oyster). The oyster is quite juicy and succulent. Also located at Super Tanker.

Penang char kway teow in Super Tanker. I like this better than the one at Macalister Road. Still a tad too oily, but not as oily as the earlier on we ate.

Chai tau kueh (fried white radish cake). Quite nice, but forgotten where was this taken.

Hokkien mee (prawn mee) and loh mee. The loh mee here is in a starchy soup with black vinegar, eaten with a mixture of chilli and garlic sauce.

One of hubby's breakfast in the second morning we're there - kway teow t'hng. Quite tasty, but I personally find it a little salty. They gave lots of minced pork in it. Will try this again the next time I'm here.

My sis had this for breakfast in that same morning. Capati laden with sambal and dhall curry. I love the sambal!!

Toast bun with egg and cheese for the kids. They love this and so do I! hehe

We had this for lunch on our third day there. I think it's hakka mee. It's definitely something different from all the Penang hawker food we had. This is surprisingly quite good. We ordered fishballs and some stuffed ladies fingers, chillies, brinjal and bitter gourd. We also tried their braised pork vinegar. A very satisfying meal.

Oh dear, I think I have to go to visit my sis in Penang again soon after writing about all these. Yummy! Yummy!

note : photos are not that clear as it's taken with my old, humble Sony Ericsson handphone.

Food excursion (part 1 - Foh San dim sum)

This is actually a delayed post. We went to Penang during weekend leading to Merdeka for a short break. And our visits to Penang is always about food. After all, we've been there numerous times, all we would do is 'makan, makan, makan', and of course visit the fish aquarium cos the kids love seeing the turtles and the fishes swimming in the aquarium.

Anyway, back to the start of this journey. We made a pit-stop in Ipoh for breakfast, aiming for the newly Foh San dim sum restaurant. The last time we were in Ipoh last December, the place was closed. This time,  we headed there and was surprised at the huge crowd there, plus the long queue entering the restaurant.

There's 6 of us (3 adults consisting of me, DH and my sis and my 2 kids and little niece). We finally got a place to sit after waiting for about 15 minutes, that also because we shared a big table with another group.

Ordering is mostly on a self-service basis. You either pick your orders from the counter or from the trolley that is seen being pushed around. Hubby tried to pick the food that we don't normally get in KL. This place is crazy! It's really huge and beautiful! Don't know why my pictures of the interior doesn't really turn out well. I guess it must be due to my handphone setting (ya, I took all photos with my handphone). So, what you see would be mostly food, food and more food.

DH picked this up first since it was the easiest for us to reach. An auntie was going around with a push-cart and so we jumped straight for this. The chee cheong fun was such a pretty sighed, with some siew pak choy at the side of the plate. Stuffed with some prawns and topped with fried shallots and sesame seed, this was kinda nice.

Well, since we were in Ipoh, I had to ask for my morning coffee and so I asked for the famous Ipoh white coffee, but was disappointed that they don't serve coffee at all. They only serve tea (and plain water) there. The tea comes in a nice-looking porcelain pot with accompanying little cups.

DH has been missing for a while and the kids are getting a little restless. And then, voila! lots of dishes started coming to us - (clockwise, from top left) fried yam ball, fried peanut and sesame ball (don't really know what it's called), dumping topped with picked ginger and dipped in black vinegar (this is one of my favourite) and a big stuffed bread pao with mean, and mixed veg, which I find quite yummy.

Of course when we eat dim sum, we need to have the chilli and the sweet sauce. I kinda like the chilli dip. Probably because I'm too hungry?

More food coming this time -  (clockwise, from top left)   har gao aka as steamed prawn mini dumplings, my kids' favourite char siew pao,  siew mai and fried fish balls for the kids.

I love these two dumplings. I don't know what the one of the left is called. It's stuffed with some sweet fillings The one on the right is mini-dumpling filled with chives (ku-chai).  They're very nice..

The lor mai gai (glutinuous rice with chicken and mushroom) is not too bad, but I've eaten better ones in KL.

We had wanted to try many other creative looking dim sum and the dessert but were too stuffed.

Can't remember the price for this, but I know it seems a little pricey for me. I would say it's a unique and satisfying experience for me (minus the fact that there's no coffee served!)

Here's the location of Foh San : No. 51, Jalan Leong Sin Nam, 30300 Ipoh.

DIY lantern

Last Friday, Brendan came home from school with some colour paper and a basic craft guide to make lantern. This was part of their art class project.

This was to instill the creativity in the kids to adopt ideas so they could further explore participating in an up-coming lantern competition in school.

We had a residents coomunity gathering last night and I was able to gather some ideas after being  impressed by the many creative submissions using all sort of recycled stuffs like egg cartons, alumunium tin, mineral water bottle, yogurt packs, woven rattans, paper plates, wooden chopsticks, transparent coloured paper and even DIY battery operated lanterns!

Anyway, Brendan was so into making his paper lantern that I had to forced him to take his dinner first, shower before he continued. He eventually got tired and asked me to help him. We managed to finish the task together the next morning.

I suddenly realised that I've been lacking in doing craft work with my kids after the lantern making session with Brendan. Gosh, I guess I have to start exploring it again after being so complacent al these while.

Brendan and his half-way done paper lantern

Fixing on the 'pin' to the bottom of the cardboard for putting candle.

Tah dah!! Brendan's end-result.

Not too bad for a first-timer huh? He's not willing to put a candle in it for fear of his hard-work all burning away.

Here's a pic of some lovely home-made mooncake goodies made by the kids' ex-nanny. Too cute to eat.. My kids just love the plain mooncake. Gosh, I feel so 'jelak' over it, but they can just go on eating them everyday.

Here's wishing everyone a wonderful mid-autumn festival!

Selamat Hari Raya to all..